Cabbeling due to mixing of the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea waters on seasonal and climatic scale

Abstract

Cabbeling due to mixing of the surface waters from the Bering Strait and the Chukchi Sea is evaluated quantitatively and variations of its impact on seasonal and climatic scale are analyzed. The cabbeling effect increases additionally the mixed water density in 0.059 kg/m3 in summer and in 0.001 kg/m3 in winter. Seasonal variation of the cabelling repeats the seasonal variation of temperature difference between the interacted water masses (ΔT ~ 5,0 оC in summer, ΔT ~ 0,5 оC in winter). This process provides additional energy for sinking of warm and salt mixed water in summer, when it penetrates far into the Arctic. In winter, the temperature difference between the mixing waters is about zero, so the cabbeling almost disappears. Both temperature and salinity have climatic trends in the Chukchi Sea that causes the climate-scale variation of the cabbeling: its impact increases in 0.002 kg/m3 per decade in summer because of climatic heating (~0,13 оC/decade) and salinity decrease (~0.04 psu/decade).